WARNING: This article contains views that some readers will object to on public health grounds. It should/should not* be banned. (* Delete as appropriate).
Dr John Gray, political philosopher and libertarian likes to think of himself as ''a liberal, but a liberal who likes to be consistent''. The description is ample demonstration of the danger of the over-use of political labels, but little help in defining his views.
For the British academic is only a liberal in the 19th century sense of free-thinker and free-trader. Otherwise his ideas sit better with the neo-conservatism of the 1980s. Certainly, no one among what he calls the progressive liberals would regard his opinions as ''politically correct''.
The crux of his argument is that freedom of expression should apply to advertisers no less than to artists, writers, politicians and religious groups.
Unrestricted advertising is the guarantee of a free media. Without it newspapers would be expensive and their circulation restricted to the point where their viability was threatened. Yet it takes a back seat to other freedoms.
''My concern is that in different parts of the world, commercial freedom of expression is being unjustly downgraded in importance compared with other forms,'' he says, taking a swipe at the growing international trend to ban or restrict certain types of advertising to protect public health or save the consumer from his own folly.